Books like 'Strange Fruit'
Readers who enjoyed Strange Fruit by Lillian E. Smith also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century literary-fiction social-commentary classics historical-fiction religion crime family poc-mc
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The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of his best-known works, Hughes wrote The Ways of White Folks while living in Carmel, California. In it, he shares acrid and poignant stories of blacks colliding--sometimes humorously, but often tragically--with whites throughout the 1920s and 1930s...Categorized as:
black-mc classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc social-commentary spirituality -
![Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor]()
Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThis is the Hispanic Roots, an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. It focuses on three generations of Villasenor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots back in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation... -
![Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke]()
Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWe have a marvelous, almost legendary image of the circumstances in which the composition of this great poem began. Rainer Maria Rilke was staying at Duino Castle, on a rocky headland of the Adriatic Sea near Trieste. One morning he walked out onto the battlements and climbed down to where the cliffs dropped sharply to the sea... -
![The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw]()
The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan love survive when all is lost? England is at war, but nothing can dim land girl Esther Wynford's happiness at marrying the love of her life - fighter pilot Monty Grant. Their short honeymoon results in a baby, but on the birth of her daughter, Joy, Esther's world falls apart... -
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![The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe forty-seven stories in this collection, selected by Singer himself out of nearly one hundred and fifty, range from the publication of his now-classic first collection, Gimpel the Fool, in 1957, until 1981...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult anthologies -
![Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck]()
Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKinfolk is the story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences between generations...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics family literary-fiction fiction historical 20th-century politics -
![Hawaii by James A. Michener]()
Hawaii by James A. Michener
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAn alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Pulitzer Prize–winning author James A. Michener brings Hawaii’s epic history vividly to life in a classic saga that has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1959...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc religion spirituality 20th-century -
![When Stars Fall at Midnight by Tess Thompson]()
When Stars Fall at Midnight by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1921EstelleCast out and alone, I lost everything weeks before my wedding—my betrothed, my family, my future. With nowhere to turn, I accept the help of a compassionate stranger, not knowing it may lead me towards a path I swore never to tread.PercivalAfter my wife succumbed to a psychotic break, I placed her in an asylum, a decision that haunts me as I raise our daughter alone...Categorized as:
historical-fiction religion spirituality romance fiction 20th-century historical book -
![Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin]()
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAt the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage... -
![Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsKazantzakis's autobiographical novel 'Report to Greco' was one of the last things he wrote before he died. It paints a vivid picture of his childhood in Crete, still occupied by the Turks, and then steadily grows into a spiritual quest that takes him to Italy, Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Russia and the Caucasus, and finally back to Crete again... -
![The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg]()
The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsConsidered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish pioneers in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Selected Poems by Langston Hughes]()
Selected Poems by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night...Categorized as:
black-mc classics literary-fiction poc-mc religion social-commentary spirituality 20th-century -
![Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz]()
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sensual and provocative second volume in the Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities... -
![Early Novels & Stories: Go Tell It on the Mountain / Giovanni’s Room / Another Country / Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin]()
Early Novels & Stories: Go Tell It on the Mountain / Giovanni’s Room / Another Country / Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“The civil rights struggle,” said The New York Times Book Review, “found eloquent expression in [Baldwin’s] novels. His historical importance is indisputable.” Here, in a Library of America volume edited by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is the fiction that established James Baldwin’s reputation as a writer who fused unblinking realism and rare verbal eloquence... -
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![Seasons of the Heart/Four Complete Novels in One Book by Janette Oke]()
Seasons of the Heart/Four Complete Novels in One Book by Janette Oke
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJanette Oke, with over 11 million copies of her books in print, writes with a special feeling about her characters and their time. This heartwarming collection of four novels is a wonderful series of stories about an American family on the prairies of yesterday...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century audiobook book christian -
![Return To Jarrow by Janet MacLeod Trotter]()
Return To Jarrow by Janet MacLeod Trotter
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCatherine (Kitty) McMullen, is seventeen, restless and rebellious. Resentful of her mother Kate's new husband, she yearns for stories of the father she never knew and when her gossipy aunt divulges that he was a wealthy gentleman, Catherine's discontent with grimy, impoverished Jarrow grows... -
![Collected Short Stories: Volume 2 by W. Somerset Maugham]()
Collected Short Stories: Volume 2 by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis final classic collection reveals Somerset Maugham's unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships in tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice. The stories range from "The Lotus Eater" where a man envisions a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of "The Outstation" and "The Back of Beyond" in Malaya and South East Asia...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical -
![They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple]()
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'They Were Sisters is a compulsively readable but often harrowing novel by one of Persephone's best writers, who always manages to make the ordinary extraordinary,' writes Celia Brayfield. This, the second Dorothy Whipple novel we have republished as a Classic, is, like the others, apparently gentle but it has a very strong theme, in this case domestic violence...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction historical female-author marriage -
![A History of Loneliness by John Boyne]()
A History of Loneliness by John Boyne
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPropelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to "the good."Forty years later, Odran's devotion is caught in revelations that shatter the Irish people's faith in the Catholic Church... -
![The Brothers Ashkenazi by Israel J. Singer]()
The Brothers Ashkenazi by Israel J. Singer
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith a large cast of characters, this is a social novel, a family saga set against the rise of capitalism and of a Jewish bourgeoisie in Lodz. It tells the story, through an interwoven plot, of the clash between old traditions and growing desires... -
![Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone]()
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDiane McKinney-Whetstone's lyrical first novel, Tumbling, vividly captures a tightly knit African-American neighborhood in South Philadelphia during the forties and fifties. Its central characters, Herbie and Noon, are a loving but unconventional couple whose marriage remains unconsummated for many years as Noon struggles to repossess her sexuality after a brutal attack in her past...Categorized as:
black-mc classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century adult -
![Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFreedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel on the heroic or epic scale about the rebellion of the Greek Christians against the Turks on the island of Crete, where Kazantzakis was from...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book -
![The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, Elina Klersy Imberciadori]()
The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, Elina Klersy Imberciadori
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMade into a movie starring Patrick Swayze, this is the inspiring story of an American doctor who experienced a spiritual rebirth in an impoverished section of Calcutta... -
![King Of Camberwell by Mary Jane Staples]()
King Of Camberwell by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSammy was the sharp one of the Adams family.Since he was nine-years-old - when he'd charged his mother interest on a loan to make up the rent money - he'd been busy setting up deals and expanding the family business - a china stall in East Street market. But as his mighty empire grew - two shops and a factory in Shoreditch - so did the determination of his assistant, Susie Brown... -
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![Tilly's Story by June Francis]()
Tilly's Story by June Francis
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCan she leave her troubles behind to find true happiness? In the aftermath of the Great War, many are searching for a new life. But has Tilly missed her only chance for love? Since the end of the First World War, the residents of Victoria Crescent have been slowly rebuilding their lives... -
![When the Clouds Go Rolling By by June Francis]()
When the Clouds Go Rolling By by June Francis
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe secrets of the past can never be forgotten An orphaned young woman is overjoyed to find a family she never knew existed, but has to come to terms with their troubled history. Since her parents died Clara O’Toole has lived with her grandmother, Bernie...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book -
![Step by Step by June Francis]()
Step by Step by June Francis
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWill their friendship survive against all odds? In the early 1900s two girls see each other through good times and bad. But can their friendship endure when an dreadful act of violence sees their families turn against one another? Hannah Kirk and Alice Moran have been friends since childhood. Growing up in the back streets of Chester, they support each other through hard times... -
![The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsROSA’S PAST IS HER PANDORA’S BOX, AND THE LID IS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED … ‘If you lie down with dogs you’ll rise with fleas’ – Irish Proverb Rosa Sorenson’s conversation was often peppered with sayings from her homeland. It was these conversational clangers that gave her daughter Kitty the only clue as to a childhood her mother refused to speak of...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
![Selected Poems: 1931 - 2004 by Czesław Miłosz]()
Selected Poems: 1931 - 2004 by Czesław Miłosz
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSelected Poems: 1931 - 2004 celebrates Czeslaw Milosz's lifetime of poetry. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of our time, Milosz is a master of expression and probing inquiry. Life opened for Czeslaw Milosz at a crossroads of civilizations in northeastern Europe...Categorized as:
classics religion literary-fiction spirituality fiction 20th-century female-mc anthologies -
![The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFour years after the Chmielnicki massacres of the seventeenth century, Jacob, a slave and cowherd in a Polish village high in the mountains, falls in love with Wanda, his master's daughter. Even after he is ransomed, he finds he can't live without her, and the two escape together to a distant Jewish community...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult -
![The Hope by Herman Wouk]()
The Hope by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“One of our best writers today—a modern Charles Dickens—is Herman Wouk… The Hope is not only a good read, but it also causes a good think.” —William Safire, New York Times Starting in 1948 and reaching its climax during the Six-Day War of 1967, The Hope begins the story of Israel, a country fighting for its life—outmatched and surrounded by enemies...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book -
![The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman]()
The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHow breathtakingly close we are to lives that at first seem so far away. From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people passing each other every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city. Only some survive to become history...Categorized as:
black-mc crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc religion spirituality -
![Just Above My Head by James Baldwin]()
Just Above My Head by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the homosexual passion of Giovanni's Room, and to the political fire that enflames his nonfiction work...Categorized as:
black-mc classics family literary-fiction poc-mc religion social-commentary spirituality -
![Mail Order Bride And The Gift of Children (A Western Historical Romance Book) (Evergreen Frontier) by Florence Linnington]()
Mail Order Bride And The Gift of Children (A Western Historical Romance Book) (Evergreen Frontier) by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinding love is never easy for a single mother listing herself as a mail order bride. But it is necessary.Eliza Buell has just given birth to her second child. Now a single mother after the death of her husband, she finds herself alone and desperate for a way to help her children survive the coming winter. With no other option, Eliza opts to become a mail order bride...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book female-mc -
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![A Place to Call Home by June Francis]()
A Place to Call Home by June Francis
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA tale of loss and the healing power of love After suffering the loss of her family, the last thing Greta Peters needs is to discover a young man has broken into her home, and is rifling through her possessions. But there is more to Alexander Armstrong than meets the eye. When it becomes clear his intentions are pure, she is determined to help him on his quest...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Paris Housekeeper by Renee Ryan]()
The Paris Housekeeper by Renee Ryan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the author of The Secret Society of Salzburg comes a powerful and moving story of bravery and resilience in World War II Paris, and one woman who must face impossible choices to survive…Paris, 1940German tanks rumble through the streets of Paris, forcing frightened citizens to flee. But not everyone has the luxury to leave...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family spirituality literary-fiction religion fiction ww2 historical -
![The Valley Of Decision by Marcia Davenport]()
The Valley Of Decision by Marcia Davenport
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the eve of World War II writer Marcia Davenport, best known for her biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, spent several years in Pittsburgh, her imagination caught by the drama of American industry. In 1942, Charles Scribner’s sons published her Pittsburgh novel, The Valley of Decision... -
![The Heart of the Family by Elizabeth Goudge]()
The Heart of the Family by Elizabeth Goudge
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDespite the "crinkled pink petals strewn in the path of those who would have preferred red," four generations of Eliots have survived the War and are moving forward. The family's remarkable matriarch Lucilla is still with them, though she's facing the dark night of the soul. All is turned on its head with the arrival of Sebastian, another survivor of WWII...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality 20th-century adult book -
![A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, Juliet Winters Carpenter]()
A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, Juliet Winters Carpenter
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA remaking of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights set in postwar Japan A True Novel begins in New York in the 1960s, where we meet Taro, a relentlessly ambitious Japanese immigrant trying to make his fortune...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century adult -
![The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe vanished way of life of Eastern European Jews in the early part of the twentieth century is the subject of this extraordinary novel. All the strata of this complex society were populated by powerfully individual personalities, and the whole community pulsated with life and vitality... -
![Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch]()
Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe third in Susan Howatch's Church of England novels, ULTIMATE PRIZES begins in 1942 with the world at war, as narrator and archdeacon Nevill Aysgarth finds himself falling into a hopeless obsession over Dido Tallent, beautiful celebrity, and finds himself pursuing her through a swamp of guilt and the destruction of his valued moral compass....From the Paperback edition...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book -
![The Priory by Dorothy Whipple]()
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis 1939 country-house novel is set at Saunby Priory, a large house somewhere in England which has seen better times. We are shown the two Marwood girls, who are nearly grown-up, their father, the widower Major Marwood, and their aunt; then, as soon as their lives have been described, the Major proposes marriage to a woman much younger than himself - and many changes begin...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-author -
![Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether, Nellie Y. McKay]()
Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether, Nellie Y. McKay
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis modern classic is “a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood” in 1930s Harlem—with a foreword by James Baldwin ( Publishers Weekly ). Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it’s both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics literary-fiction family social-commentary poc-mc black-mc fiction -
![The Town by William Faulkner]()
The Town by William Faulkner
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContinues Faulkner's tale of the Snopes family, set in rural, post-bellum Mississippi...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult book -
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![Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright]()
Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet in the American Deep South, each of the powerful novellas collected here concerns an aspect of the lives of black people in the postslavery era, exploring their resistance to white racism and oppression. Published in 1938, this was the first book from Wright, who would continue on to worldwide fame as the author of the novels Native Son and Black Boy...Categorized as:
black-mc classics historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century adult -
![Climates by André Maurois]()
Climates by André Maurois
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWritten in 1928 by French biographer and novelist Andre Maurois, Climates became a best seller in France and all over Europe. The first 100,000 copies printed of its Russian translation sold out the day they appeared in Moscow bookstores... -
![The Short Stories by Langston Hughes]()
The Short Stories by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis collection of forty-seven stories written between 1919 and 1963--the most comprehensive available--showcases Langston Hughes's literary blossoming and the development of his personal and artistic concerns. Many of the stories assembled here have long been out of print, and others never before collected...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction black-mc poc-mc fiction anthologies 20th-century historical -
![A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys]()
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFirst published in 1932, here is John Cowper Powys's masterwork, an epic novel of terrific cumulative force and lyrical intensity...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century adult arthurian -
![A Spider Thread by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa]()
A Spider Thread by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLet us suppose the Buddha Sakyamuni was taking a morning stroll in paradise one day and happened by a lotus pond whence the flowers shone brilliant white as jewels, their golden centers effusing an ineffable perfume everywhere thereabouts...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century book children-books christian -
![I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight]()
I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBeginning in the late 1950s, this novel tells the story of Marietta Cook, a tall girl growing up in Pine Gardens, a Gullah-speaking village in South Carolina. When Marietta's mother dies, she heads to Charleston in search of her uncle - only to find a lover and return pregnant with twins two years later...
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